Ebola outbreak in DRC fastest-growing, cases up 25% in one week
Africa CDC has warned that the Ebola outbreak in DRC is outpacing response efforts, with cases up 25% in one week and treatment centres at 95% capacity.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has reported progress in efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but warned that rising infections continue to outpace the response. The Head of the Continental Incident Management Support Team for the Ebola response, Wessam Mankoula, disclosed this during a Thursday webinar on the outbreak.
Mankoula stated that the continental Incident Management Support Team is now operational in Uganda, coordinating the Ebola response with support from partners across Africa. He noted that the DRC and Uganda have also made progress in implementing a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cross-border Ebola surveillance and response.
Laboratory capacity has improved significantly, with health authorities now able to conduct more than 2,000 Ebola tests daily across affected areas. Clinical trials evaluating Ebola therapeutics have commenced, marking another milestone in efforts to improve treatment outcomes.
Despite these gains, confirmed Ebola cases increased by 25 percent over the past week, raising concerns about sustained transmission. Ebola treatment centres remain under severe pressure, with bed occupancy reaching 95 percent across affected facilities. Contact tracing also remains inadequate, with only seven contacts identified for every confirmed case, well below the recommended target, while infections among frontline health workers continue to pose a major challenge.
Mankoula described Uganda’s response as encouraging, stating that the country had demonstrated that Ebola could be contained through strong surveillance and rapid action. Uganda has recorded 20 Ebola cases, most linked to imported infections, but authorities quickly contained transmission. The country currently has only one patient receiving treatment after recording two deaths and 17 recoveries. Uganda achieved complete contact tracing for all identified contacts, helping to interrupt further transmission.
In contrast, the DRC had recorded 1,759 confirmed Ebola cases as of 7 July, including 353 new infections reported within one week. The outbreak has claimed 600 lives, representing a case fatality rate of about 34 percent. Among healthcare workers, 112 infections have been recorded, while 35 frontline workers have died during the response. Mankoula described the current epidemic as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak recorded during its first six weeks. The virus continues to spread faster than response efforts can keep pace with, with the effective reproduction number estimated at 1.4. “This means the outbreak is still progressing,” Mankoula said. “Currently, the estimated reproduction number is 1.4, meaning every 10 infected individuals are expected to transmit the virus to approximately 14 others.” The outbreak has affected 37 health zones in the DRC.
The Nigerian stake is urgent. Nigeria’s public health surveillance systems are weak. The country’s borders are porous. The 2014 Ebola outbreak showed how quickly a virus can spread across West Africa. If the virus reaches Nigeria, the consequences could be severe.
From a Nigerian vantage point, the DRC outbreak is a warning. The lesson of 2014 was clear: Nigeria is not immune to regional outbreaks. Yet the country’s health surveillance systems remain underfunded. The faster the virus spreads in the DRC, the higher the risk that it will reach Nigeria’s borders.
This echoes the 2014 Ebola epidemic, when the virus spread from Guinea to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The outbreak claimed over 11,000 lives across West Africa before it was contained. Nigeria recorded 20 confirmed cases and eight deaths. The lesson was clear. The question is whether Nigeria has learned it.
The winners: none. The losers: the 1,759 confirmed cases and 600 families who lost loved ones, and Nigeria, which has not yet learned the lessons of 2014.
Bottom Line: Ebola is spreading faster than the response in DRC. Uganda has contained it. Nigeria is watching. The clock is ticking.